The Capitalist Investor - Episode 23 What do Elon Musk and Michael Jordan have in common? Capitalism. While Elon claims he’s a socialist, many of his words and actions prove otherwise. The docuseries “The Last Dance” that heavily features Michael Jordan is trending right now—it flaunts a VERY capitalist comment from Michael. Listen to this episode for a spirited discussion about capitalism—and how democrats can be capitalists too.Outline of This Episode[1:50] Why Elon Musk is a capitalist[4:12] The pandemic has forced the public to pick sides[6:40] What IS the truth that people should know?[11:37] “Republicans buy sneakers too”Guess what? Liberals CAN be capitalistsBeing a liberal on social issues does not mean you have to be a socialist. You can hold liberal views on gay marriage, the death penalty, abortion, and climate change and still be a capitalist when it comes to the economy.This isn’t a show about being a republican. This isn’t a show about being a democrat. Neither has anything to do with this podcast, and we hold views that differ from both parties. But we do espouse the belief that the best way for our economy to move forward is through capitalism.The government injected themselves into the proverbial ballgameThe pandemic has been very divisive. It has forced us to pick sides in a battle we didn’t want to fight. We don’t take the republican stance on every issue, but we strongly believe that the more the government gets involved the worse things tend to get.Milton Friedman and Adam Smith were both noted for saying that the government was never supposed to participate in the economy—it was only meant to be an umpire. The government injected themselves into the game as a player and completely stopped play. Now it needs to extricate itself from the game for us to move forward.Elon Musk: no longer a closeted capitalistElon Musk—best known as the CEO of Tesla—has been front-and-center in the fight back against the economic shutdown in response to COVID-19. He is vocally anti-Trump and they’ve engaged in numerous public Twitter feuds. Elon is definitely a liberal.But it has become VERY apparent that he’s also a capitalist. Elon recently tweeted “Take the red pill”. It’s a reference to the movie “The Matrix” (starring Keanu Reeves) where the main character took a red pill to “seek unvarnished truth”. This terminology has become slang for taking a conservative viewpoint.This tweet caused the Twitterverse to explode and claim that Elon was taking a capitalist stance on the government shutdown. It makes sense, he’s frustrated with bureaucracy. While Elon IS a socialist, he’s still a billionaire. He still has a business to run, and it was about to be run into the ground due to California’s stay-at-home orders. So Elon took a stance. Keep listening to hear what he did to shake things up.One simple statement made Michael Jordan a CapitalistThe Last Dance, a documentary about the Chicago Bulls’ last championship run, is trending right now. Michael Jordan dominates a lot of the series. In one of the episodes, they featured a snippet of Michael being encouraged to endorse Harvey Gantt. In what he now claims was an “off-the-cuff” response he stated “Republicans buy sneakers too”.With that simple statement, he will forever be a capitalist in our minds. He didn’t want to risk the money he was making with Nike by ostracizing republicans to support a democrat running for senate. Jordan admits he never wanted to be an activist—he just wanted to play ball and make money. We talk about his explanation about the infamous quote—keep listening to hear more about our famous liberals who are also capitalists.Resources & People MentionedThe Last Dance DocumentaryElon MuskElon Musk’s TwitterBook: The Wealth of NationsBook: Capitalism and FreedomHarvey GanttConnect with Derek GabrielsenTwitter: @DerekGabrielsenFollow Derek on LinkedInSend Derek a message hereConnect With Mark TepperTwitter: @MarkTepperSWPFollow Mark on LinkedInSend Mark a message hereSend your questions and comments to us at info@SWPConnect.comSubscribe to The Capitalist InvestorShow Notes by PODCAST FAST TRACK https://www.podcastfasttrack.com
